We've all endured months of shorter days and longer nights, but the dark days are almost over.

British Summer Time is almost here, heralding the bigging of spring, and more hours of daylight for all of us for the next six months or so.

And you never know, this summer might even be a proper summer, with some sunshine to bask in.

The downside to the beginning of BST, of course, is having to sacrifice an hour of sleep ...

So when do the clocks go forward?

Greater Manchester (and of course the rest of the UK) will swap over to British Summer Time at 1am on Sunday, March 27.

It means you will have to put your clocks forward an hour, but luckily for us because of the wonders of modern technology most mobile phones and radio-controlled clocks now do this automatically.

Although it’s always best to double check, just incase.

If you’ve got an iPhone, go to Settings - General - Date & Time and make sure “Set Automatically” is on (You’ll probably still end up on Google checking the time though).

When do the clocks go forward?

They go forward in

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Days

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Hours

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minutes

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Seconds

Why do they go forward?

The concept was first introduced during the First World War by Germany and Austria, and then by the Allies, to save on coal usage.

New Zealand entomologist George Vincent Hudson was said to have invented it, but British businessman William Willett and American politician and inventor Benjamin Franklin are too credited with the idea as a way of getting up earlier and so having more daylight hours after work.

When do the clocks go back?

In other words, when do we get an extra hour in bed?

Well, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) will return, along with those dark, winter nights that we’ve just escaped, on Sunday, October 30 at 2am.